Women's Beach Volleyball

Women's beach volleyball finishes as runner-up in state final

Irvine Valley battled throughout the nearly 10-hour day at the California Community College Athletics Association Women's Beach Volleyball State Championship at Grossmont.

But the Lasers came up just short of defending their title.

In a rematch of last year's top two finishers, Grossmont defeated Irvine Valley, 3-1, in the final match of the day to claim its first beach state championship.

Irvine Valley won the first contest on the courts between the two teams, getting a 21-17, 21-14 from the No. 5 sophomore pair of Taylor Askins and Rachael Woods.

But Grossmont got wins from its No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 teams to earn the title.

The event included regional winners Grossmont, Irvine Valley, Golden West and Cabrillo.

In the first round of action everyone seemed to be battling the elements as a steady rain continued to fall from warm-ups through the first handful of matches.

Each team was 1-1 after four matches with neither winning team being decided until the top-pairings hit the court. Irvine Valley went the distance to defeat Cabrillo, 3-2, while Grossmont took down Golden West, 3-2, as well. Half the matches went to the third set including three straight matches midday.

Round two was a complete 180 as nine of the 10 matches were 2-0 sweeps with all but one victory going to Irvine Valley or Grossmont. Irvine Valley defeated Golden West, 5-0.

The lone exception was the round's final match with Cabrillo's top pairing defeating Grossmont's top pairing by identical sets of 21-19.

The deciding third round began with a match win for Irvine Valley in the No. 5 pairing before Grossmont won three straight.

Grossmont's teams of Katie Rademacher and Alejandra Puga, Megan Angerstein and Callie Guasti, and Tiffany Cobain and Hannah Doonan went a combined 5-1 over the day. The only undefeated team on the day was Irvine Valley's top pairing of sophomores Emily Reinking and Hailee Earnest.

They went 2-0 on the day and were winning their match against Grossmont's No. 1 team when the match was called because the Griffins had already secured the title.

Saturday will consist of the first two rounds of the Pairs State Championship bracket with nine of the pairs teams that played Friday returning to play single elimination Saturday.

The event will finish with the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals on Sunday.

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